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Restoration and Research

The science of prairie reconstruction has developed significantly since the pioneering days of Aldo Leopold’s Arboretum Prairie, and we now have the knowledge and capacity to reconstruct entire prairie landscapes. But translating practice to measurable, enduring success continues to challenge us, especially as new threats to our prairie ecosystem emerge. How can we refine the process of prairie reconstruction to better and more efficiently meet our goal of promoting the tallgrass prairie in the face of these emerging challenges? At the Tallgrass Prairie Center, we strive to improve our understanding of prairie reconstruction and ecology while at the same time put more prairie back on the landscape to benefit people, the land, and other living things.

Our research approach is to use a combination of formal experimentation and demonstration teaching sites to answer the relevant questions that land managers and decision makers have about creating and maintaining prairie plantings in many different types of situations. Whether it's in roadside right-of-ways, working farm fields or busy urban areas, our research using real-world equipment and techniques discovers new information that's directly applicable to practice.

Find out more about our current research, research we've already done, and highlights from new and ongoing restoration projects on the left navigation bar.